LONGMONT -- Scrubs, the garment of choice in the medical profession, are not easy to find. Plenty of places offer them for sale online, but for those who prefer browsing through racks, feeling the fabric and trying them on before buying, that used to mean a trip to Loveland or Thornton.

That's what inspired Jessica Alvarado to open Unique Scrubs in April 2011. She started off with just 250 square feet inside Old Town Marketplace, a collective of small and start-up businesses at 332 Main St. in downtown Longmont. Her business kept growing, and today she's opening in her own storefront: a 1,000-square-foot space at 381 Main.

"I knew that a lot of people need them and they do want quality," Alvarado said Friday. "Not everybody can spend $20 on gas anymore."

Jayden Madrid-Alvarado, 2, laughs as he eats candy while sitting on a box of scrubs as his mother Jessica Alvarado sets up her new location at Unique Scrubs on Main Street in Longmont.
(
Matthew Jonas
)

Alvarado had been a certified nurse's assistant for about five years when she opened her store.

"For a year I worked full time with no days off," Alvarado said. Full time as in, full time as a CNA at Life Care Center of Longmont and full time running her store.

Opening Unique Scrubs changed her life in more ways than one.

"Since the first week we were in business (Doug Bene, the city's economic development manager) walked into the shop and said, 'We're from the city of Longmont and we have a lot of services for you.'"

Bene's job includes overseeing programs the city has for small and start-up businesses, such as the Longmont Economic Gardening Initiative. Alvarado said she took several of the classes his office and the Small Business Development Center offers and Bene also introduced her to Jesse Esperaza, president of the board of the Latino Chamber of Commerce of Boulder County, who she said has been a huge help to her.

"Every week he used to go to my shop and give me business classes," Alvarado said.

Through Bene she also learned about other programs Longmont offers, such as classes for first-time homebuyers. Thanks to those classes, she said, she and her husband, Rafael, and their two kids, 2-year-old Jayden and 8-year-old Jossy, were able to buy their own home six months ago.

"We learned how to through those classes," Alvarado said. "(Rafael) was working but I was teaching him everything I was learning."

Rafael is also a certified nurse's technician, although his full-time job is physical plant technician for Life Care Center, where Jessica works.

A few years ago, Rafael ran his own construction company, but the downturn crippled his business, he said. That's when he went to school and earned his CNA designation, and that led to a job at Life Care Center.

"I was working there (as a nurse's assistant) but they actually needed some help in maintenance," he said. "It's actually a lot better paying job."

Added Jessica, "Since he knows both things, they sometimes call him to work CNA hours too."

So Jessica has her 30 hours of CNA work a week plus running the store. Rafael keeps the Life Care facility humming and when not working there, is most often in the store. They split time taking care of the kids and, by the way, he also plays keyboards in a Latin band.

"I run the shop the whole week and on the weekend I go do the CNA and he works in the shop," Jessica said.

She doesn't pay herself any salary from her job, she said. Everything she earns goes back into her shop. Having the extra space and income will allow her to bring in some lines of scrubs that she couldn't get in before, she said.

Jessica said she has no plans to leave her CNA job -- she enjoys taking care of the people too much. But she also has dreams beyond just the scrubs shop.

"I want to become a (registered nurse); that's my next goal," Jessica said. "And I want Rafael to do that, too."

Jessica, 27, said that she and Rafael, 26, don't look at their long hours as a burden. It's a lot of hard work, she said, but they have their fun together when they can, and they get to see a lot of their kids. They have family in the area that helps out with watching the kids when needed, such as the occasional date night. But most of all, she said, she and Rafael -- "high school sweethearts," she said -- support each other.

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